


A Journey (Together)

by lutzaussi



Series: One Summer's Day/Always With Me [8]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Babies, F/M, Family, Gen, M/M, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2018-09-13 06:18:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9110269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lutzaussi/pseuds/lutzaussi
Summary: When Anko gets pregnant, it's more like the entire family is expecting a baby, not just her and Ibiki. Anyway, it is a family effort to see it through to the end.And how in the hell does the entire village keep hearing about this stuff before it's officially announced?





	

Anko shares the fact that she is pregnant with Iruka by breaking into his and Kakashi’s shared room at twenty minutes past five in the morning, wearing nothing but her underwear and a sweater. Kakashi, who is still asleep, automatically grabs Iruka, who sits up and blearily stares at his sister.

“Iruka you’re gonna be an  _ uncle _ ,” Anko grabs his face and looks a mix of excited and absolutely panicked.

“What,” Iruka says.

“What?” Kakashi echoes, not letting go of Iruka.

“I’m  _ pregnant! _ ” she says, also not letting go of Iruka. And Iruka vaguely realizes that she sounds  _ terrified _ under her excitement.

The terror is eased some when Sakura hears, because Anko trusts Sakura with her life and Sakura has a way of calming people down simply by being rational and listening. Iruka also listens in because they are all sitting at the kotatsu while Naruto and Sasuke putter around the kitchen with Ino, getting breakfast ready.

“So, you’ll need to notify Tsunade-shishou,” Sakura is saying, “and get taken off of the active roster, but that’ll be easy.”

“Aah, there’s so much!” Anko grips her head with both hands, “What about the hospital?

“Well,” Sakura says, leaning against Kiba when he comes in and sits down. “I figure if there aren’t any problems, Ino and I can take care of you here.”

Anko looks as if the largest of weights has been removed from her shoulders, and she leans back against Ibiki’s arm and sighs. Ibiki, through the entire thing, merely listens attentively, grunts in an affirmative way whenever necessary, and looks a conflicted mix of terrified and proud.

‘Terrified and proud’ seems a pretty accurate way to describe the rest of Anko’s pregnancy, in Iruka’s private opinion. She swings between stolid readiness and absolute, unsleeping terror, which isn’t helped by the fact that she has very bad morning sickness and when  _ she _ can’t sleep, it’s fairly likely that the rest of the house can’t either.

Naruto and Sasuke move out into the secondary house, and for her own ease of mind Sakura moves into their room. Which is good because, if nothing else, it eases Anko’s mind as well.

Within a week of Anko informing them all of her pregnancy, word gets out to the general public, and Iruka wishes that school was not in, because it means that all of the parents of his students pester him for news and give him gifts to be passed on to Anko and Ibiki. He finally goes to the Hokage to have her release an official statement on the Wakahisa name stating that gifts are appreciated, but only if dropped off at the compound, and that any news can likewise be learned at the compound.

Which means that he is left alone at work, and once Sakura threatens to punch a whole crowd of busybodies, the compound is peaceful as well.

And that is only the first few months, so by the time that Anko really starts to show the entirety of the Wakahisa clan is waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Aaaand…

It doesn’t. The morning sickness gets better and though Anko has some weird cravings--Sasuke literally cackles,  _ out loud _ , when she asks him for tomatoes--it’s basically smooth sailing from months four to seven. Anko is even taken to a shrine by Kurenai in her fifth month to pray for safe delivery. The smooth sailing is only disrupted because, during one of Sakura’s usual check-ups on Anko, she learns something.

It’s a Saturday, and it’s beginning to get cold outside, but not enough so that they have to have the heating on. Iruka and Kakashi are in the kitchen, gradually getting all the things they need for hot pot chopped up, and talking quietly about Ino and Kiba’s genin teams.

Said genin teams are in the courtyard, doing something with their teachers and Sasuke, but they all scatter when Sakura slams the front door of the house open, grabs Ino, and runs back inside. The alarm bells are not yet going off in Iruka’s head, but he’s curious and so is Kakashi, so they abandon the vegetables and peek into Anko’s room, just in time to hear Ino say, “Yeah, you’re right, Sakura, the other heartbeat is fainter, I’m not surprised we didn’t notice it before.”

“Notice what?” Anko says, hefting herself up from the blanket-and-pillow-wedge she is laying on and not even batting an eye when she sees Iruka and Kakashi standing in the door.

“Anko,” Sakura looks her in the eye, “you’re having twins.”

The shriek that comes out of Anko’s mouth after a few beats of silence is loud enough to deafen the kids outside the house, and Sasuke comes appears in the window with his sword drawn.

“What’s wrong?” he demands.

“Sasuke, can you have Kiba dismiss the kids?” Ino asks, leaving Sakura to take care of the wailing Anko, heading for the same window that Sasuke was hanging in. “I need to go find Ibiki.”

She knocks him out of the window so she can leave for the Hokage Tower, and when they’re both gone and Sakura has run off to make Anko some tea Iruka goes and sits down with Anko. Kakashi goes to attend the vegetables and intercept Sasuke and Kiba.

“Oh my god, why am I bringing two babies into this shitty world?” Anko croaks, lets her head rest against Iruka’s chest when he gathers her up in a hug.

“Well,” he says, and his voice is warm, “the world is considerably less shitty than it was last year, if it’s any consolation.”

Anko sniffles a little, wipes her face off on his shirt and starts bawling when Sakura reappears with tea and a few of the chocolates that she had hidden in her borrowed room for situations such as this. They sat with Anko until Ino arrived with Ibiki in tow, looking completely gobsmacked.

Iruka slips out, then, with Ino, finds the rest of their family--sans Naruto, who is on a mission--in the kitchen. Sasuke is making the broth for the hot pot but when he notices them come in he slams a ladle down on the table, demands, “What is going on?”

Iruka gives Ino a glance that means she gets to explain the events of the afternoon while he slips his arms around Kakashi, who is seated at the table.

“We thought Anko was a bit big for only twenty-seven weeks and,” Ino sits down, too, “it’s because she’s having twins.”

And the calm that they had been stuck in breaks, and the last two months are hell for just about every member of the Wakahisa clan. Kakashi and Naruto and Sasuke are sent on a long mission that takes a full month, Kiba and Ino likewise go on missions and come home quite worse for wear with their teams, and Iruka, predictably, breaks his leg while he is on the sole mission he has to take for the year.

Sakura seems rather thankful that she doesn’t have to take missions when faced with that. And she is notified by Tsunade that she will be given a genin team the next year, while at the same time Kakashi is told that if he doesn’t take another genin team, he will be moved back onto the ANBU.

Kakashi agrees to take another team.

The babies finally come a week before school breaks for the winter, and Iruka is told of their imminent arrival by Kiba, who interrupts his class with his own genin team in tow, looking terrified. “Oi, Iruka, Anko was yelling for you when I left and I’m not going back,” he says, ignoring all of the children staring at him and Akamaru with open mouths when he comes in the window.

“I can’t just leave,” he says, though he really,  _ really _ wants to.

“They have another hour, I’ll make sure they don’t kill each other,” Kiba returns, and Iruka has never been more thankful for his family.

“Be nice to them,” is all he says before he flickers away, the short distance to the house.

Naruto and Sasuke are sitting on the front step, and Naruto perks up when he sees Iruka. “They’re in the back room, the one with the bed,” he says, squishes Sasuke to the side so Iruka can get past them.

Ino has her genin team at work getting towels and warm water, and she doesn’t acknowledge Iruka’s presence except to dance out of his way.

Kakashi is acting as doorman, and he gives Iruka a grimace and a peck on the nose when he lets the other man into the room and shuts the door behind him. Anko is walking slowly around the bed, making Ibiki feed her rice with pickled plums in it. Iruka falls in step with them and Anko gives him a weak smile, “Wouldn’t want you to miss this.”

“Not for the world,” Iruka returns. They walk for nearly an hour, before the contractions are coming too often for Anko to continue, and Sakura and Ino kick everyone else out, even Ibiki at Anko’s request.

Sasuke made food, but it’s difficult for anyone to eat because they can all only think of Anko giving birth three rooms away, and eventually Kiba takes Ino’s kids and his own kids and has Kakashi teach them how to climb trees.  Iruka stays in the kitchen with some tea that Sasuke makes for him, and when Kakashi is done with the kids he comes and sits with Iruka. It’s nearly an hour before Kiba lets the genin go and the door to the back room slides open.

Ino comes out with a bag of dirty towels, her arms wet but clean.

“A boy and a girl,” she says, “they’re getting cleaned up, but Anko wants everyone to see them.”

When they are cleaned up and Ino has managed to assemble the rest of their family (though Kiba tried to run away), Sakura opens the shoji so the rest of the family can see them.

“What are their names?” Naruto asks, and Anko sticks her tongue out at him.

“You all have to wait until their naming ceremony,” she says, and she sounds exhausted but she looks at Iruka, beckons him to come closer with her head, “if we could talk?”

Sakura shuts the doors and leaves once he is in the room, shepherding everyone else away and, presumably, to bed.

“Saki,” she says, looking down at the baby in her arms, then back at Iruka, “after Ibiki’s grandmother.”

“The lotus of the forest,” Ibiki murmurs, not looking up from the baby that he is holding. Iruka smiles, nods. He had heard stories about the woman.

Anko looks at Ibiki, “And--I wanted to ask--”

Iruka knows where this is going. “Yasu?”

She smiles, a sad little thing, and nods. “He always liked kids,” she says, “and I think we could use a little more peace in the world.”

“Yeah,” Iruka says, “we could.”


End file.
